A Memory in the Rubble
by IReadAndWriteSometimes
Summary: The team's first visit to the murder room after the explosion brings back an old memory.


I wrote this tidbit soon after the season 5 finale, but the site was acting up at the time, and I ended up losing this entire doc. I was so annoyed by it that I never came round to re-writing it, but the other day, it just mysteriously reappeared in my Doc Manager! Don't ask me how, it just did. Anyway, I finally finished it, and, as always, MajorCFan was so kind as to beta it, so here I am finally posting it.

It's short, but I hope you will have fun reading it anyway. :)

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 **A MEMORY IN THE RUBBLE**

The team was let inside the murder room the next day after the area had been properly secured. Andy, who had not been on the floor, much less his work space, since he had left it the previous day to go after Ortiz, was in for quite an eye-opening sight.

The broken windows were haphazardly taped off. What glass hadn't found its way outside the building, was covering the floor. A door had been blasted off its hinges and lay flat on the floor as well. He swallowed when he read the signs on it, and they said, '935, Captain Sharon Raydor'. He shook himself out of it and continued his private inspection. Not all desks were ruined, but there were pieces of wood here and there on the floor, and judging by the rest of the debris in front of him, Andy doubted any chairs had survived the explosion. Noting the dents in their filing cabinets, he shuddered. What state would his team have been found in, had they not managed to escape the luggage's immediate vicinity?

"Jesus," he muttered, then looked at Sharon. The two of them were heading their little group. "And you got out of this unscathed?"

She shrugged, a contemplative expression on her face as she scanned the scene. "It would seem so."

Julio walked past them, further into the room. "The murder room not so much," he said, crouching down to lift a broken computer monitor.

They were let in to see if there was anything important still intact, or if there was really anything else they might salvage before the chaos was cleared, and repairs could commence. Andy could care less about it. In his book, everything of importance had already been located.

"Remember when we first moved into this place?" Mike asked, clearing the debris off the top of a still whole desk.

"I remember nothing working the way it was supposed to," Provenza muttered, making his way to where his desk was supposed to be.

Buzz glanced over the damaged walls. "I remember painting some of these walls."

Andy finally took in the big gaping hole between the murder room and Sharon's office. He chipped in sarcastically, "I remember there _being_ a wall."

Sharon smiled sadly, moving into her office. Sweeping some rubble aside with her heeled boot, she said, "So this is what it's like to have an open office."

They all chuckled. Provenza, who had been frowning at the disarray around his desk, gave her a sideways smirk. "How's that for a view, Captain?"

She turned around to look at him and merely laughed in response.

Andy took a breath. He was still a little shell-shocked. Laughing did not come as easily to him just yet. "So boxes?" he asked, trying to focus, and wondering how many boxes they would even need considering the clutter they had stepped into.

"I can go find us some," Amy offered as Andy approached his ruined desk.

Sharon nodded. "Please," she said kindly, then walked further into her office.

"Yes, Captain." Amy instantly hurried out in search of them.

"What's this?" Nolan suddenly asked, sounding surprised.

"What's what?" Mike asked in turn.

"Uh, I think this used to be a drawer," Nolan said, picking up a piece that had what looked like a drawer handle attached to it. "Found this in it," he lifted another, much smaller object to show it to them, "and a bunch of crumpled papers."

Julio suddenly chuckled and shot Andy an amused question, "That's not the Captain's, is it, Sir?"

Andy frowned. "Sharon's?" he asked confused. "What?"

Nolan dangled the thing in front of his face for Andy to see. He looked slightly puzzled himself. "This a bean bag?"

Andy's face lit up and he took a few quick strides toward the younger detective. "Oh, I forgot about that!" he exclaimed and snatched the small, red bean bag out of his grasp.

Provenza groaned. "Flynn, you've got to be kidding me!"

While Julio chuckled again, Andy just shrugged and addressed the rest of his squad who were eyeing the item with interest. "Remember that, guys?" he asked, a wistful smirk on his face.

Mike's expression held awe. "That's hard to forget, don't you think?"

Buzz hung his head in disappointment. "I wish I had that on tape."

Nolan looked between them. "What's hard to forget?" he asked Mike. "Have what on tape?" he added, looking at Buzz.

"May I, Sir?" Julio asked Andy, reaching a hand out for the bean bag, momentarily ignoring Nolan's questions.

Andy nodded and gave it to him. "I want it back," he warned.

Julio grinned, then turned to Nolan. "This," he dangled the bag much the same way Nolan did a few moments ago, "is how we learned there was more to our Captain than just a mean rulebook."

Provenza nodded in agreement. "A bean bag gun for instance." He raised an eyebrow at Nolan. "And one hell of an aim to go with it."

Mike laughed. "Remember what she said afterwards?"

Andy laughed, too, and folded his arms before answering. "How could I forget?"

Still clueless, Nolan frowned. "Erm, somebody please fill in the blanks?"

"Found some boxes," Amy suddenly announced, walking back into the murder room, holding a stack of folded cartons. Realizing she had walked in on something, she came to a halt and shot them all a puzzled look. "Uh, am I interrupting something?" She glanced into Sharon's office, but she was busy going through her desk drawers.

"Oh, no," Mike waved her off, "you're just in time."

"For what?" she asked, starting to hand out the boxes.

"For a story about the former, intrepid head of FID," Provenza explained sarcastically.

Before Amy could respond, Andy tilted his head and conspiratorially added, "It involves a high speed car chase."

Her face lit up and even Nolan perked up at that. They both glanced at Sharon who was still occupied in her office. "While she was in FID?" Amy asked, already sounding impressed.

"Yup," Andy quipped, grinning.

"Well?" Nolan prompted, waving his hand in a circular motion, trying to move the conversation along.

Mike eagerly started on the story. "Well, we were working this case involving the Mexican drug cartel. And the Captain was doing an FID investigation or something." The look Mike shot his older team members, said he was a bit iffy on the details. "And," he took a breath, "anyway, she found one of the suspects, some girl."

Julio took over. "Maria, I think," he told Mike. "So the Chief called us in to back her up, because she was tailing her in a car around the city."

"And long story short," Provenza hurried them along a little, "the suspect picked up a guy whom she ended up driving to a cafe Howard and Hobbs were at, and the guy opened fire."

Amy's and Nolan's eyes widened. "Were they okay?" Nolan asked.

Andy grimaced. "Well, Hobbs got shot, but ju-"

"DDA Hobbs got shot?" Amy questioned, shocked as she interrupted him.

"Nothing serious," Mike assured her, but Amy continued to look as if the DDA in question had been shot right then and there.

"Anyway," Provenza went on, "the Captain and us were hot on the guy's wheels, chased after him for a few blocks."

"The Captain could keep up, too," Julio chipped in, smirking.

"And like that wasn't impressive enough," Mike said, raising an eyebrow, "once we got them to stop..."

"The woman driving was scared half to death," Andy interjected.

Mike nodded, not minding the interruption. "But the guy," he tilted his head from side to side, "not so much."

Julio went on. "He knew we couldn't shoot him because he was unarmed, so he just started walking away, even though we were pointing our guns at him."

"And then Sharon here," Andy pointed a finger behind him in her direction, "just struts over to the the trunk of her car, finds a bean bag gun, calls out to the idiot and then," he smirked, taking a pause before getting to the punchline, but Julio beat him to it.

"Shoots the guy right between the eyes!" He pressed the bean bag briefly to the middle of his forehead.

Andy chuckled. "So the guy drops to the ground, and she just shrugs it off like it's nothing."

"Says it was a lucky shot," Mike added, sounding incredulous. "And how the-" He was interrupted by none other than Sharon. Nobody noticed her walking out of her office.

"The recoil on those bean bag guns really is awful," she told them on a shrug.

They all shifted their focus to look at her. She was smiling in amusement and came to a stop once she reached Andy.

He grinned at her. "First time we didn't just plain hate on IA," he told her.

She shrugged again, but continued smiling. "Oh, I remember." Over the top of her glasses, she glanced over all of them. "It was the first time in years that I entered a room and it did not go eerily silent because everybody feared for their badges," she told Amy and Nolan.

Provenza chuckled. "Oh, we were impressed," he admitted.

She raised an eyebrow at him, then gave the rest of the team that worked that case a smug look. "I know."

Amy and Nolan looked puzzled. Clearly they either had no run-ins with Sharon during her FID days or had very limited ones.

"What's the big deal?" Nolan asked, shrugging. "I think that, especially after yesterday," his voice was filled with genuine awe, "it's safe to say you're Captain for a reason."

Sharon gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you." Her gaze swept over Provenza, Mike and Buzz only to linger on Andy, and she added, "When you're head of the rat squad, however," she quirked an eyebrow at Andy in clear amusement, "some find it hard to recognize those reasons."

Andy just rolled his eyes, seeking out the ceiling for a moment, and the rest of them laughed again.

Nolan shrugged and addressed Andy, his puzzlement renewed. "So that happened before the Captain took over Major Crimes?"

When Andy just nodded, Amy went on, "And you kept that bag," she tilted her head at Julio, "all those years?"

Sharon interjected before Andy could do more than nod again. "Bag?" She narrowed her eyes at Julio. "From the bean bag gun?" she asked him.

Julio shrugged and raised his hand, holding it up for her to see. "The one and only, Ma'am," he confirmed proudly.

She reached a hand out. "May I?"

Julio eyed Andy, but nodded. "Here you go," he said, and dropped the bag into her open palm.

She hummed, examining the little item. "You kept this all this time?" she asked, looking at none of them, but they all knew who the question was aimed at.

Andy rubbed a hand awkwardly over the nape of his neck. "Apparently." He shrugged. "I forgot I had it though."

"We're lucky it survived the explosion," Buzz mumbled.

Sharon looked up at Andy. "May I keep it?"

Andy's eyebrows shot up. "Why?"

She smiled coyly, taking a second to settle on an answer. "Sentimental value." There was a slightly questioning lilt to her words.

Provenza mumbled, "Sentimental my..." He quickly snapped his mouth shut when both Andy and Sharon shot him a sharp look.

Mike looked at him in amusement. "Good thing she just has the bag," he teased.

Provenza rolled his eyes, and started unfolding Amy's carton to form a box. The rest of them laughed at him.

"So?" Sharon questioned Andy.

"Huh?" he let out. "Oh, yeah," he waved a hand at her, "keep it, I guess."

She threw the bag in the air slightly and, catching it, smiled brightly. "Thank you." She turned to Amy. "I came out to grab a box actually."

"Oh." Amy immediately offered her one. "Here you are, Captain."

Sharon took it. "Thanks, Amy." Turning back toward her office, she somewhat playfully ordered, "Now get back to work."

Provenza rolled his eyes, when Amy eagerly said, "Yes, Captain."

 ** _3 weeks later_**

"Hey, Commander," Andy peeked his head inside Sharon's newly renovated office through the open door.

She had her back turned to him, standing in front of the credenza behind her desk. Turning around to face him, she found him grinning. While she found it amusing and rather endearing that he grinned whenever he addressed her by her new rank, she was starting to think she might have to talk to him about it. She was far from minding it, but she failed more often than not in resisting returning his smiles at work as it was. His grins, as she inevitable proved just then, by grinning back, were even harder to resist reciprocating. At the same time, however, she wasn't sure she wanted to admit just how susceptible to his charms she was. Oh, he knew alright. However, he would be positively smug and grinning even more about it, if she openly confirmed his knowledge. "Yes?" she asked.

"I'm done out there." He tilted his head back. "We all are." He shrugged and stepped into her office. "Need any help?"

Their murder room had finally been fully renovated and updated with what everybody but Buzz and Mike thought would be headache inducing. Finally, they were allowed to move completely back into their original work place.

"No," she breathed out. "I'm done here, too," she added, pulling out her desk chair to take a seat.

Suddenly, Andy chuckled. "Sentimental value, huh?" he mumbled, his eyes on the credenza behind Sharon.

She turned in her chair, smiling. "I thought my office deserved an update as well."

Andy laughed and tapped her name plate on the desk. "I thought this was one hell of an update for it, Commander."

She smirked and shrugged. "Still."

Andy rounded her desk, walking toward the credenza. "Can't believe you had it framed," he said, picking up the object of his disbelief, a small glass frame, a red bean bag set firmly in its middle. He waved it at Sharon and raised an eyebrow at her. "You do know we still hated your guts back then?"

She chuckled, but in a low voice she confirmed, "Oh, I know."

Andy grinned. "But?"

"But," she repeated on a satisfied smile, "it took a lot to impress you guys back then." She tilted her head to the side. "I think that warrants keeping this small token."

He shook his head, amused, and put the frame back in its place. "I didn't think you wanted to impress us."

She shook her head, too. "I didn't. It is nice, however, to know that I still managed to," her lifted eyebrow revealed how amused, and even a little pleased, she was about that, "without putting any effort into it."

He nodded, chuckling. "Good thing I kept this then."

She hummed, watching him walk back to her open door.

"You think I could get that gun framed then?" he asked from the threshold.

She laughed. "Go back to work, Lieutenant," she ordered somewhat playfully, although meaning the words. Now that they were finally done settling back into their murder room, the division could return to actual police business.

He momentarily feigned a pout, and started walking out, only to step back in within the next second. "You know," he spoke in a low, quiet voice, mindful of being overheard, "I may not have liked you back then, but even then," he eyed her newest decoration, "that was kinda hot."

She was grateful for her makeup, for she was sure she blushed. Pursing her lips to keep from smiling, she shook her head and waved a hand at him. "Go away."

He flashed her a goofy grin. On a mock salute, he stepped out of her office and even closed the door behind him.

 **THE END**

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Thoughts?


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